PQ Requests.

[music_beans]

How long can it take for requests to dishquality@echostar.com to get processed? I emailed them almost a week ago about ghosting on KCSD (9236), but the problem still remains.

[Mark Lamutt]

I've seen replies take anywhere from an hour to more than a week. If you don't hear something from them soon (or don't see any improvement in PQ) send the request again. Also, it wouldn't hurt to contact the station engineer at KCSD if you can to talk to them about the problem.

[Mike D-CO5]

I e-mailed dish and within 3 days had received a e-mail back from the quality department which had made some improvements to fix the problem on the Houston channel. It helps to give very detailed e-mail and include your phone number so they can call you and work with you over the phone. I did this and talked to Eric and Dave at Dish over the phone when they called to fix the problems.

Yesterday I "moved" to the Little Rock Ark. locals and Kip Wilcoxson the asst. manager from the Field Engineering Department called me on the phone and he made some changes over the phone while I watched, to tweak the things I initially noticed wrong with the channels. He even asked me to watch the locals and give him a more descriptive observations via e-mail and he would work on them the next day.

He emailed me today and he said he would make some changes on those problems I identified today. He even left me his office # and his cell # and his personal e-mail address. He said he loves it when customers will e-mail him and let him know where the problems are on this end. That way he can fix them at the up link center.


Kip explained to me that sometimes the local stations change the output of the signal at different times which can affect the color resolution and detail and sharpness of the picture. Often Dish has to call the local stations to get them to fix the problems at their end. Right now he has to send field engineer to the actual stations I have seen problems with since Dish has done all they can at their end. This was in reference to the ABC station that looks so washed out in Little Rock.


An interesting side note; He said that after the 9-11 disaster, He gave the NewYork stations his decoder to use as a donation to get the stations back up ,since all the stations were on the towers. He said that Cable and Directv still use the signal from this decoder as well as the ota customers. That might be why these locals look the best out of all the distant locals. I thought this was a nice thing for Dish to do at no cost to the stations.

E-mail them several times if needed and include your descriptions of the defects you notice and include your phone number and a time your time zone they can reach you. This has worked for me everytime. Right now there is only 2 stations that really look good out of the Little Rock stations so I expect to be working with them till these problems are resolved.

[Mike Richardson]

Which Houston station?

[Mike D-CO5]

First it was the channel 13 Abc station and then it was the channel 2 nbc station. Both lacked color saturation.

[DarrellP]

If you CC: your local station engineer, you will get a faster response because you will have both ends looking into the issue. In Portland I've always had a response within 1 day by doing this.

[Mike Richardson]

First it was the channel 13 Abc station and then it was the channel 2 nbc station. Both lacked color saturation.

Did/have you noticed channel 51 being really pale?

[Mike D-CO5]

Yes but that is a station I really didn't care to watch anyway so I never complained about it. I think the only thing on that station was baseball.

[Mark Holtz]

But, that is so.... irregular.

Under the SHIVA laws, low power stations cannot request must carry. The DBS provider can refuse even if the station is willing to pay for the equipment.

Don't believe me? Ask TNGTony, who is very reliable with his information. DirecTV and TWC are both carrying the Cinicinnati, OH UPN station even though it is a low-power station. The owner of the station even offerred to pay for the equipment to get his station carried, and Dish refused. Apparently in Dish's eyes, UPN and WB aren't as important as the big four.

The SHIVA rules also state that if a transmitter is located in Mexico or Canada, it is also inelligible for must carry. Some of the San Diego stations have their transmitters located just across the border... perhaps because it provides the best coverage to San Diego.

I give up....

[music_beans]

Since I forgot to CC the SDPB (KCSD) engineer, I sent basically the same message stating that this is what I sent to DISH and so on. At least I got emails to both of them.

[Mike Richardson]

I was watching WB39 news tonight and it was ghosting really bad. You could see the numbers "39" ghost several times as well as other on screen text. I think I'll give that e-mail a try. (It was not my TV. It's connected with S-Video and the guide does not ghost)

[music_beans]

Good news!

Got a reply back from them today, and they said they were monitoring the channel and would address it early tomorrow morning. (estimate) They are just great! :)

[Mike D-CO5]

I was watching WB39 news tonight and it was ghosting really bad. You could see the numbers "39" ghost several times as well as other on screen text. I think I'll give that e-mail a try. (It was not my TV. It's connected with S-Video and the guide does not ghost)



The way Kip Wilcoxson from the Dish engineering department told me; Dish sometimes uses over the air signal just like the local people do . Not all signals are fiber optic cables to the uplink center. This is why sometimes you will see ghosting.